BAMBURGH resident Julie Spruce found a well-preserved short cross penny in the village but dating it proved problematic until archaeologists turned to social media.

Within minutes, archaeologists from the Bamburgh Research Project had ascertained that the coin dated from the reign of William the Conqueror (1066-1087).

Archaeologist Gerald Twomey said: “I just happened to pop into Julie’s sandwich shop one day and she said she’d found this coin.”

Joanne Kirton, archaeology supervisor, added: “The coin is in quite good nick and it was very difficult to make out the name on the coin.

“But we did have good decoration on the cross section and the image of the king so we trawled the intenet looking for comparisons. We couldn’t find any so decided social media was a good outlet for getting responses from the general public.”